


seasonal insomnia

by graveExcitement (arachnids)



Series: insomniac chronicles [3]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-25
Updated: 2013-03-25
Packaged: 2017-12-06 12:34:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/735744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arachnids/pseuds/graveExcitement
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Usually, it's Zuko who can't sleep, but during the summer it's Sokka instead.</p>
            </blockquote>





	seasonal insomnia

The heat was suffocating here, in the midst of summer. He woke up several times each night soaked with sweat, overcome by waves of heat. If this was merely summer in the Earth Kingdom, he shuddered to contemplate living in the Fire Nation.

Of course, those in the Fire Nation probably welcomed this heat. Not Sokka, though, who rolled onto his side and flipped over his pillow, trying to bring some coolness to his face.

It never seemed so bad, in the daytime. Just warm. Maybe it was just this house? Yes, that would be logical: a stuffy house could get very hot indeed, after a long day's worth of sun.

"Stop moving around so much," grunted Zuko from the other side of the bed. Sokka stilled, if only for his sake: after all, _he_ was having no trouble trouble sleeping (for once), and Sokka hated to disturb that, as much as he liked to complain. What he really would have liked was to cuddle up to Zuko, fall asleep with his face nestled in the crook of his neck, but he had determined that Zuko's added body heat made this impossible for him; thus, he had limited himself to the right side of their king-sized bed.

It was all quite unusual - Sokka's talent for falling asleep at the blink of an eye had never failed him before, and Zuko was often quite the insomniac. It appeared, however, that summer was enough for the usual order of affairs to be reversed.

Sokka listened to Zuko's breathing even out once more, though he suspected Zuko had not been fully awake in the first place. Spirits, he had no idea how he'd deal with Fire Nation summer. Some stroke of luck had ensured that he had never had to visit during the _summer_ of all times, but that wouldn't last forever, not while Zuko was Firelord and Sokka was his ambassador to the Water Tribes. Last summer, he had been spending time down at the South Pole, and the summer before that had been negotiating with the Northern Water Tribe; now they were spending some time in Ba Sing Se, but at some point, he'd have to travel to the Fire Nation during the summer, and what then?

No easy answer presented itself, and Sokka laid there, restless but still. Maybe he would simply not sleep at all in Fire Nation summer. He was already close enough to such a state here, after all.

He felt Zuko shifting, and hoped he hadn't managed to somehow wake him up. The room was silent for a time, long enough to convince Sokka that perhaps Zuko had not woken after all, before he noticed that Zuko was taking deep, measured, controlled breaths, distinct from those of sleep.

He wasn't sure how to ask, imagined that it was some exercise meant to aid in returning to sleep, when he noticed something. With every deep breath Zuko took, the temperature of the room seemed to decrease slightly, a small but noticeable change.

Sokka rolled back over to watch Zuko do his work in the dim moonlight. "Thanks," he murmured.

Zuko kept breathing in and out, until at last the room was cool. "I should have thought of it earlier," he muttered. "Bending the heat out of a room has always been well within my capabilities."

"Shh," Sokka found himself saying, "don't worry about it." Before his partner could reply, he awkwardly shifted over to him, wrapping an arm around his midsection.

Pale arms encircled Sokka in return, and though he briefly worried that now Zuko would be unable to sleep, both found themselves drifting away easily, in the early hours of a summer morning.


End file.
